social welfare allowance and eircom

miseagustusa

hi all, just a quick query!! I get social welfare phone allowance off my eircom bill, my query is that it seems the allowance is added on and then taken off again in this discounts section???

e.g. CHARGES TO YOU BILL : phone = 26euro, broadband =65euro, social welfare allowance = 42euro....total = 133

DISCOUNTS TO YOUR BILL : phone/broadband bundle -26euro, social welfare allowance -42euro...

The way i am lookin at this bill it seems that i'm getting 0.00euro discount 4 my social welfare allowance as its added on in the charges and then discounted in the discount section????

am i reading this right ???

tanx

Sponge Bob

You should pay (your bundle price x 2 months + out of bundle calls) = total then minus €42 for the total payable by you.

miseagustusa

thanks spongebob!!! thats what i was thinking but on the bill it is added to the charges package and the discounted at the end???

I'll ring them monday morning to see what there ans is!!!

nothing

Your "calls" part of your bundle should be reduced by the amount of the sw (roughly), which is why it seems to be added and then taken away.

eircom: Mark

miseagustusa wrote: »

hi all, just a quick query!! I get social welfare phone allowance off my eircom bill, my query is that it seems the allowance is added on and then taken off again in this discounts section???

e.g. CHARGES TO YOU BILL : phone = 26euro, broadband =65euro, social welfare allowance = 42euro....total = 133

DISCOUNTS TO YOUR BILL : phone/broadband bundle -26euro, social welfare allowance -42euro...

The way i am lookin at this bill it seems that i'm getting 0.00euro discount 4 my social welfare allowance as its added on in the charges and then discounted in the discount section????

am i reading this right ???

tanx

Hi miseagustusa

I hope the answer I posted on the eircom forum was ok? Let me know if you want me to elaborate.

Thanks, Mark

Voodoo_rasher

getting the allowance figure deducted from her bill balance.

It is not taken into account in the overall bill like it should be but

instead it is apparently added to the bill (Page 1) . In effect

she is being.

charged EXTRA.. Eircom are helping themselves to the

Allowance instead are they not?

The bill is set out in such a way that it is ambiguous. This is both unfair and underhand. Why is the allowance listed under 'Charges'?! I realise that eircom are apparently €3bn in the red. So they utilise this method to recoup it?

eircom: Mark

Voodoo_rasher wrote: »

getting the allowance figure deducted from her bill balance.

It is not taken into account in the overall bill like it should be but

instead it is apparently added onto the bill (Page 1) . In effect

she is being.

charged EXTRA.. Eircom are helping themselves to the

Allowance instead are they not?

The bill is set out in such a way that it is ambiguous. This is both unfair and underhand. Why is the allowance listed under 'Charges'?! I realise that eircom are apparently €3bn in the red. So they utilise this method to recoup it?

Hi Voodoo_rasher

If a cuatomer has the social welfare telephone allowance and allso has a call package or bundle package with eircom. The allowance is shown as a charge and then deducted.

So I appreciate it may seem as though they are not getting the charge deducted of the total bill.

However lets say for example the cutomer is on the Talktime talker package which is usually €42.81 Inc Vat per month. As the call package includes line rental the charge for the pacage will only be €21.40 Inc vat per month for customer on the social welfare allowance.

Thanks, Mark

Voodoo_rasher

eircom: Mark wrote: »

Hi Voodoo_rasher

If a cuatomer has the social welfare telephone allowance and allso has a call package or bundle package with eircom. The allowance is shown as a charge and then deducted.

So I appreciate it may seem as though they are not getting the charge deducted of the total bill.



Thanks, Mark

Aye, it would 'seem as though..' .

You are deducting the allowance from itself, never mind listing it

under 'Charges' which it blatantly is not!

Yet concurrently, this 'allowance' is added onto the tally (Page 1) to give the final balance!

If there was an element of T R A N S P A R E N C Y

in your bills, we would not have this contention. But transparency is

lacking here.

That the allowance is not deducted from a visible original figure to give the final balance is misleading to say the least.

The customer in question and presumably many others is not rightfully benefitting from the allowance.

Instead 'it would seem' that Eircom is pocketing it in very cynical fashion.

I have shown a sample bill to non-national friends and they concur that it is outrageous and makes no sense.

miseagustusa

i'm still baffled by this :rolleyes:........i only started getting the Social welfare benefit in July, yet my bills are still d same amount?????.......so as above poster states, it is not coming off my bill (and others who havent noticed it yet)........

Voodoo_rasher

Its meant to be that way - baffling. Bills are set up to be interpreted in
more than one way. As they have their 'truth', we have ours. I went head to head against one of their call center agents, a professional in spin, likely hired especially . He was successfully able to contradict me. What hope does an elderly person have but go to the C.O.?
Wonder how they got into €3bn debt - has it something to do with the collapse in share price after it floated, who benefitted from that we'll never know..And thats another thing we are forking out for in this failed state.

miseagustusa

Same happened 2 me .......i rang about something diff and when i questioned the social welfare benefit package, the call centre persons voice changed and she started stuttering and said she'd have 2 put me on2 a diff department, 5mins later (he was obviously on another call) a man came on and waffled off aload of crap, obviously well rehearsed if i do say so myself!!! i just hung up n left it at dat!!!!.......think i'll contact social welfare and a few other depts 2 see if they'll look in2 it!!!!.....wont hold my breadth though

Will I Amnt

So let me get this straight,you only recently started receiving the sw allowance and your bills are the same as before you were receiving it and Eircom are trying to tell you that they are deducting it from your bill????

If so that is crazy and I don't know how somebody could talk someone into believing that.

CamperMan

sounds like a typically backward way of dealing with things

miseagustusa

if you know some1 who is wit eircom and receives social welfare phone allowance, ask dem can you have a look at their bill and then you'll see what we mean!!!!

number_1

On the front side of page 2 of your bill, look for a section called "Your charges for this period". In this section will be a charge (not a credit) called "eircom Social Benefit Package". This is a single charge to account for line rental, handset rental of up to 78c per month, and phone calls worth up to €1.50 per month.

Later in the same section, look for "Dept. of Social Protection credit". This is a credit which should exactly equal the charge described above. This is all above board and correct, the net result of adding the charge and the credit should be €0.00.

The method Eircom uses for implementing the allowance on the bill is very confusing (to say the least). It's easy to observe how they use the allowance to pay for line rental, but I cannot figure out how they assign the free calls. I'm looking at the Eircom bill of an allowance recipient, and as far as I can see they are paying full whack for their calls, not being discounted by the €1.50 per month free calls allowance. Maybe I'm wrong but nowhere in the itemisation of calls does a discount appear to be applied.